US SPECIAL FORCES LEFT BEHIND IN TRIPOLI
Thirteen U.S. special forces sailors left behind in Tripoli
are surrounded and threatened by radical Islamic terroritss - but the U.S.
military refuses to bring them home.
The three officers and ten men of the U.S.S. Intrepid
died in 1804 fighting the same radical Islamists we fight today, then known as
Barbary pirates. They captured ships and held their crews for ransome, enslaved
and killed Christians and imposed Sharia law where ever they laid claim to the
territory, that now includes Tripoli.
One of the ideals that defines the differences
between us and radical Islamists is the veneration of the dead and making
monuments of the graves of our saints and heroes. That's something the radical Islamists
don’t do - and don’t allow anyone else to do either. The Islamists don’t believe
in honoring their dead, only Allah and his prophet Mohammid.
As U.S. Navy personnel who died on one of the first
special ops missions of the U.S. military, these men should be afforded the
same rights and honors as the Americans who die fighting on foreign soil today. And our clearly stated policy of leaving no one behind should be enforced
across the board and not selectively to those who died most recently.
Instead of repatriating these men when they could, the
military used the graves of the American heroes a means of dealing with the
Gadhafi government. So the cemetery was restored and the graves and crypts refurbished. A history of the cemetery was written and the State Department
requested the United Nations add the
cemetery to the list of World Heritage sites ostensibly protected by the UN.
But that hasn’t been the case with other World Heritage sites under control of
the radical islamists, including the twin Buddas in Afghanistan, the ancient
Sufi archivs in Timbukto, mosques in
Iraq and Syira and other World Heritage sites that have been totally destroyed
by ISIS. You can imagine what they would do to desecrate the clearly marked
graves of US sailors and destroy whatever remains are entombed, as they did with the revered Sufi saints
in nearby mosques.
Rather than just bring them home the DOD spent twice
as much money on a study of the feasibility of repatriating them and decided it
wasn’t worth it.
The DOD POW/MP office, riddled with scandal, refused
to bring the remains of the men of the Intrepid home when they had the
opportunity, despite the repeated requests of the families of two off the
officers and the support of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars,
Am-Vets and the New Jersey State Legislature.
As soon as the security situation permits the
remains of these men should be retrieved and returned home and reburied with
full military honors in a secure place where people can visit and learn the
lessons of history and take inspiration from the gallant actions of these brave
men.
Now it is just a matter of who will get there first,
the radical islmasits who will undoubtedly videotape their desecreation and
destruction of the graves, or Americans who save Captain Somers and the remains
of his brave crew?
